The rain poured down outside and Seán Doran showed no mercy. The Derryman, who is director of the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF), conjured up images of another world where the sun always shines, where city dwellers go to the beach every morning and where free, outdoor concerts are part and parcel of this long-established festival.
The Perth International Arts Festival started in 1953. Next year it will celebrate its golden anniversary. We're all invited.
It's going to be a festival of festivals, he says, citing a sculptural installation on a salt lake by Turner Prize winner Antony Gormley and an outdoor production of Wagner's Twilight of the Gods opera on the banks of the River Swan in the heart of Perth city as key events.
"Western Australia is a marvellous place," said Bob Halverson, Australian ambassador to Ireland. He chatted to Fidelis and Jack Doran, parents of the festival director. They are just back from Wimbledon, where another Australian, Lleyton Hewitt, took the men's singles title.
It's Australia's oldest and largest multi-arts festival. A number of people went along to the Australian Embassy in Wilton Terrace to take note of the line-up for next year's celebrations in Perth.
Doran's sister, Áine Doran, and her husband, J. P. Moore, plan to travel. Doran's brother, architect Garbhan Doran, was checking out the line-up too.
Alison McArdle, from Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, is producer of the Perth festival.
Jerome Hynes, chief executive of Wexford Festival Opera, was there with his young son, Robbie (8), about to head off to Il Trovatore, at the Gaiety Theatre, where the Anna Livia Festival is in full swing.
Another Australian in attendance, Vallejo Gantner, director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, is busy preparing his own festival line-up, which will be finalised by the end of August and swing into action for three weeks on Monday, September 23rd.